Forbidden
by In-My-Head-749
Summary: Peter Barlow, a 23 year old teacher who is finally getting his dream job after years of hard work. Carla Donavon, a 15 year old student who finds herself caught up in a living nightmare every single day of her life. Peter knows something's wrong, and sets out to find exactly what, but what he didn't count on was starting to fall for the 15 year old, who might just be falling back.
1. Chapter 1

**So a Carter fic (in later chapters) with quite a bit of evil Frank in there (Actually a lot of evil Frank) So please enjoy :) :P  
+ There's goign to be quite a bit of Michelle in there too  
**

New teacher

Peter Barlow walked into the empty classroom, his empty classroom. It was his first day of proper teaching and he was the new form tutor to a year 11 class, most of them from the rich estate down the road, the rest from the worst estate in Manchester. Apparently, on the whole, it was a nice class, but one name kept popping up in conversations, Carla Donavon. 'Always late', 'Never does homework', 'Attitude problems', 'terrible grades', the list was endless. According to the other teachers she was a trouble maker, a disgrace, and should probably have been expelled years ago.

Peter had always stuck to his morals though, and one of them was never to judge people by what other people said about them. Even though he was still pretty young he had met some people that other teachers described as a lost cause, when actually, there was something a lot bigger going on in their lives for them to be able to concentrate on stuff like school.

He remembered one boy he met while training at another school. He always turned up in scruffy, un-ironed uniform, no homework, always late, it turned out his mum had disappeared and he was looking after his little brother and siblings on his own. It was quite distressing, seeing the state the house was in, it was horrible.

He looked at his register and saw another name that had cropped up quite a lot, Michelle Connor. Carla's best mate, apparently Carla led her astray so it was best not to sit them next to each other. When Carla wasn't around Michelle was a lovely girl who always got high grades, all that stuff.

Peter had already decided to let everyone sit where they wanted, but if they messed around, then he would move them. He liked to give his students freedom to make their own decisions, but know the consequences, if they were naughty, they would get a detention, that kind of stuff.

A few kids were starting to filter into the school area and before he knew it the whole school was full of rowdy kids, messing about and having a laugh, just the normal kid stuff. The bell went and his form started to come into the classroom, they went straight to seats with their friends and soon Peter started the register.

"James."

"Here sir."

"Daisy."

"Here sir."

"Michelle."

"Here sir."

"Jason."

"Here sir."

"Carla."

There was no reply.

"Carla." He called again.

Still no reply, the seat next to Michelle was empty, when Carla came in he guessed that was where she would be sitting.

He finished the register and began talking, "Hello, I am Mr Barlow and I'm going to be your form tutor until you finish the year, I'm going to let you sit where you want to sit, but if you mess around, I will move you, understand?"

"Yes Mr Barlow." The class said.

"Good, I think that's all you need to know about me really, obviously, you all know each other but I don't know you, so..." Peter carried on talking and about halfway through the lesson he saw two people making their way into the school playground.

It was a girl with long, dark hair, and a boy, probably her little brother, in a very scruffy school uniform. The girl didn't look very happy, she looked like she was talking to the boy, and she looked like she was also pretty angry.

Soon the two of them were out of sight but five minutes later the girl walked into the classroom.

"You must be Carla." Peter said.

"Yeah, who are you?" Carla asked. Peter had to keep back a laugh, it seemed she did have a bit of an attitude.

"I'm Mr Barlow, your new form tutor." Said Peter

"Where do you want me to sit?" Carla asked.

"Wherever you want." Said Peter

Carla went straight to Michelle and slung her bag under the table before starting talking to Michelle.

The rest of the lesson went without a hitch, Carla didn't really say much, though Michelle said enough for both of them.

As Carla left the room Peter couldn't help but watch her, she didn't seem like a particularly troublesome student to him, Michelle looked like more of a trouble maker. So what if she had a bit of an attitude, it wasn't really uncommon in teenage girls.

So why did Peter think there was something wrong, he didn't really know but as soon as he saw her making her way across the playground he noticed something about her, he wasn't sure what it was, but there was definitely something, so what was it?

* * *

"So what do you think about Mr Barlow?" Michelle asked as she and Carla walked down the corridor on the way to their next lesson.

"Well, he's a teacher." Said Carla.

"Yeah, but what do you think of him, I think he's quite nice." Michelle said.

"Chelle, he's a teacher, teacher's are never nice, they may act it, but they never are." Carla sighed.

"Stop being so, what's the word, oh yeah, prejudiced." Said Michelle.

"Huh?" Carla asked, what was she going on about.

"You know, you're being prejudiced, you're judging him before you actually know him. You're just thinking he's a stereotypical teacher, who's horrible." Michelle said.

"I have no idea what anything you just said means." Carla sighed.

"I know." Said Michelle, pulling out her phone and answering a text.

"Who's that?" Carla asked.

"Dean." Michelle sighed dreamily.

"Dean, 18 year old Dean, the one that you've been seeing since like, September?" Carla asked.

"The very one." Michelle smiled.

"But it's been like six months!" Carla exclaimed.

"And?" Michelle asked.

"Don't kid yourself, you usually get a boyfriend, go on a couple of dates, sleep with him and dump him." Carla pointed out.

"That was the old me," Michelle said, "The new me is a lot more mature, and I will be doing no more bed hopping."

"Yeah." Carla said sarcastically.

"I'm being serious, Dean is different to the others, he's better to me, he didn't just ask me out to get me into bed." Michelle said.

"Oooh, is Michelle in love?" Carla teased.

"Shut your mouth." Michelle laughed. Carla looked outside to see Rob making his way out of the school.

"I'm going to kill him." Carla muttered underneath her breath, before managing to catch up with him.

"What the hell are you doing?" She yelled.

Rob just sighed and rolled his eyes.

"You can't skip school, I've told you, they'll get the social on us!" Carla exclaimed.

"Is that really a bad thing?" Rob sighed.

"Look, Rob, I've got my GCSE'S this year, I need to get the grades, I can't keep having to deal with you as well as everything else." Carla sighed.

"Then don't worry about me!" Rob said.

Carla sighed and shook her head, "Come on," She said, grabbing his arm, "What's your next lesson?"

"Geography with Mr Adams." Rob sighed.

"Lets go then."

Carla literally walked Rob to the geography classroom, which was the opposite end of the english department, which was where she needed to be.

By the time she got there she was ten minutes late.

"Carla Donavon, thank you for gracing us with your presence." Said Mrs Gilroy, who was a horrible teacher that no one liked. For some reason she had taken an immediate dislike to Carla, and made her life hell whenever she saw her.

"Sorry Miss." Carla said.

"Don't you take that tone with me young lady!" Said Mrs Gilroy.

"What tone?" Carla asked.

"The tone you just talked to me in." Mrs Gilroy said.

"I talked to you in my normal voice." Carla argued.

"Half an hour detention at lunch time for arguing with a teacher." Said Mrs Gilroy.

"B-"

"If I hear another owrd from you it will be an hour." Mrs Gilroy said.

Carla just kept her mouth shut and made her way to her seat, which was next to John Williams, the biggest, neridest geek in school. Bloody brilliant!

**Please review thanks :) :P**


	2. Detention

**I've changed the rating to M due to some of the themes featured in the story...  
And when I said Michelle had been seing Dean since September I actually meant March so the story is set at the start of the school year in September, I think that's it...  
Thanks for the reviews :) :P  
Please enjoy!**

Detention

Carla walked into the classroom, to see Mr Barlow sitting st the desk, brilliant, her new teacher doing her detention on the first day back at school, great! She walked over to one of the desks and sat down, slinging her cheap bag under the desk.

Peter watched Carla as she sat down, "So, half an hour off Mrs Gilroy, not a brilliant start to the school year." He said.

"Not my fault." Carla sighed.

"According to Mrs Gilroy you were half an hour late, talked to her very rudely and kept arguing with her throughout the whole lesson, and you should be grateful you only got half an hour." Peter said, repeating what he had been told by the old English teacher.

Carla scoffed, "I was ten minutes late, only because I was stopping my idiotic brother bunking off school, and she just randomly accuses me of being rude to her, so of course I'm going to argue, and that was only for thirty seconds before she threatened me with an hours detention. Ask anyone in that class and they will tell you the same thing."

"All right, so why did Mrs Gilroy do all these things?" Peter asked.

"Coz she hates me, always has done since the first time I met her, she took one look at me and hated me, the old cow." Carla muttered.

"So, what happened the first time you met her?" Peter asked, he knew if he was ever going to work out what was wrong with Carla, he was going to have to get her to trust him.

Carla looked at him, "No offence, but why do you wanna know all this?" Carla asked.

"I'm just interested, that's all, so what happened?" Peter replied.

Carla sighed, "I was in year 9 when I first had her, I had english first and was late because Rob was refusing to get up and I had to get him into school."

"Rob?" Peter asked.

"My little brother," Carla sighed, "He's in year 9 now."

"Why did you have to get him up, what abpout your parents?" Peter asked.

He noted Carla's expression flicker before returning to her usual scowl, "They had to go out early for a job." Carla lied.

"Anyway, what happened next?" Peter asked.

"Well, I'm fifteen minutes late, I apologise, and then, later in the lesson she asks me a question that she had talked about when I wasn't there, so I was obviously going to get it wrong." Carla said.

"And then?" Peter prompted.

"She had also said if whoever she asked got the question wrong we would get detention." Carla sighed.

"So, did you get detention?" Peter asked.

"Well, yeah, after I called her an old cow who smells like she's just come out of a pigs arse." Carla said, smiling at the memory of Mrs Gilroy's face.

Peter had to supress a chuckle, "I'm sure that didn't give you any brownie points!"

"Well, yeah, and she's hated me ever since, she always picks on me, gives me detntion at every oppurtunity and she gives me low grades however good the work is!" Carla exclaimed.

"How do you know?" Peter asked.

"Well, I was always getting really low grades, D's and E's, I still am but thats not the point. Michelle was getting A's and B's so one time Michelle gave in a piece of my work I gave in a piece of her work." Carla said.

"And when you got the marks, the work that Michelle did had a low grade and the piece that you did had a higher grade." Peter finished.

"Exactly." Carla said.

"You know you could get her fired." Peter pointed out.

"Yeah but-Wait a minute. You're a teacher, you're on her side." Carla said.

"Just coz I'm a teacher, does not mean I'm on her side." Peter sighed.

"Yeah, but you are aren't you, I've just been here bitching about her and you're gonna skip off and tell her exactly what I've just been saying!" Carla exclaimed, jumping up and going to grab her bag.

"Carla, wait!" Peter exclaimed, grabbing hold of her arm. He hadn't meant to, it had just felt like the right thing to do. He let go as soon as he realised what he was doing.

"Look, I'm sorry." Peter said, half expecting Carla to make a run for the door, but surprisingly, she sat back down.

"It don't matter." Carla mumbled.

"Anyway," Peter said, trying to forget about what he had just done, it was only grabbing her arm, but it felt like much more than that and he didn't know why, "Why don't you report her?"

"There's not much point is there, no one's gonna believe me over her." Carla sighed.

"I do." Peter pointed out.

"Yeah, but you've only just started, no one's gonna believe you over her either, I'll have just lied to you and you, being as young and inexpeirienced as you are, fell for it hook, line and sinker, that's what they'll say." Carla sighed.

"They might not, and anyway they did Miss said she would-" Carla suddenly stopped talking, she had said too much already.

"Miss said she would do what?" Peter asked, what did Mrs Gilroy say?

"It doesn't matter." Carla said, she could feel her temper start to rise, caused quite a lot by the worry that she had said way too much.

"Well it does." Peter said.

Carla decided to totally change the subject, "Look, do I have to do the rest of this detention or not?" She asked.

"Don't change the subject Carla, what did Miss say?" Peter asked.

"It doesn't matter!" Carla yelled, jumping up and pushing the chair over, she grabbed her hand and made her way to the door.

"Carla-" Peter started.

"No, it doesn't matter, all right? As far as I'm concerned that conversation never happened, you should just forget about it too." Carla said, slamming the door and storming outside. She was too wound up to stay at school, she knew of she did she would end up blowing up and getting into a whole lot mroe trouble.

She walked out of the gates and walked the streets for a bit, feeling quite self conscious of her short skirt, which she knew was getting stared at by the local junkies that littered the streets around here.

She sped up a bit, but felt her heart drop as she saw a swanky sports car roll around the corner. It was the only car like that round here so it was obviously going to be him driving.

As the sports car rolled to a stop beside her ahe took a deep breath, preparing herself for what was coming next, becuase she knew what it was, it was always going to be that, whatever she did wrong, whatever punishment she deserved, if she deserved it. It was always the same, it was always going to be that, and there was no way she could stop it from happening.

She considered making a run for it but it was too late as she saw the window roll down and Frank sitting at the wheel.

"Get in the car, now!"

**Please review, thanks :) :P**


	3. Dirty

**Thanks for the reviews :) :P**  
**I'm at school so I'm not sure how much I'll be able to update...**  
**Warning: This chapter has some themes which some people could find upsetting/offending.**

Dirty

Carla sat in silence as Frank started to drive home, her mouth had gone dry, she knew what was coming.

"Why aren't you in school?" Frank asked.

Carla took a deep breath, "A teacher was being...annoying, so I walked out."

"What have I told you about drawing attention to yourself, to your family, you don't want social to come and take you away, do you?" Frank said angrily.

Carla just shook her head, she knew that the best way to deal with Frank when he was angry was to just say nothing, it wouldn't calm him down but it wouldn't make him any more angry either, Carla had learnt thaat the hard way when she was younger.

Carla was 10 when she had come home to see Frank moving his things into the tatty house that she had shared with her mum and Rob. He had been nice to start with, buying her and Rob all kind of nice presents and taking them places.

Frank had given her and Rob more things in the first month of living with them than their mum had in their lives, Frank had been amazing and Carla had thought that maybe, just maybe, her life was going to be all right from then on.

Of course, she had gotten it really wrong, really really wrong.

She still remembered the first time like it was yesterday. Her mum had gone off on to go sell a bunch of drugs that would get her a lot of money, not that she would spend any of it on her kids, everything she bought with her drug money was spent only on herself.

Anyway, it was one night and she was almost asleep when Frank came into her room. She hadn't really thought it was strange to begin with, he usually came in to say good night, but that night he had just stood there, watching her.

He had walked over to next to the bed and he had sat down, and he had put his hand on her leg and then he-Carla felt tears threatening to fall out of her eyes as she remembered what had happened next.

And then it happened again, and again, not always every night but Carla lived in constant fear of him, she had done for five years now, five years of her life that she hadn't felt safe in her own home.

Frank made her feel dirty, there was no other way to put it. She had watched Michelle go from guy to guy and knew she would never be able to do that, simply because of the way Frank made ehr feel and what he did. She had her fair share of offers from guys but she had always turned them down, Michelle had thought she was absolutely mental, but she didn't understand. Michelle didn't know anything about it, Carla couldn't tell her, she just couldn't.

Carla had thought about telling someone, but had decided against it, one way or another Frank would find out and then, Carla shivered, she didn't want to think of what he would do to her if she told.

Her mind trailed back to Mr Barlow, she didn't know why but she had immediately trusted, no, not trusted him, but he had made her feel like, it was hard to explain, but he seemed different to every other teacher she had ever met,like he was different to every other guy she had ever met as well.

"Go upstairs." Frank ordered as they walked through the doors into the empty house. Carla did as she was told, knowing that if she didn't, it would be a lot worse.

* * *

Peter hadn't been able to concentrate all afternoon, he couldn't stop thinking about Carla, there was definitely something wrong with her, but he couldn't think what.

He had a year nine class today, which had Carla's younger brother Rob in. He was definitely a trouble maker, there was no other way to put it. He hadn't stopped talking throughout the whole lesson and hadn't done any work.

He was clever though, Peter could tell that he was, he didn't need anyone to tell him, he just knew. If he could get Rob to actually do some work he could be really good.

When the bell rung Peter kept Rob behind.

"What do you want?" Rob asked moodily, he was quite similar to Carla in the way that they spoke and acted.

"I just want to talk to you." Peter said.

"About what?" Rob asked.

"You, and your sister." Peter answered.

"What do you want to talk to me about Carla for?" Rob asked.

"Well, she had a detention at lunch time and I was talking to her and she stormed out." Peter said.

"Good on her." Rob said.

"Yeah, well, does she usually act like that?" Peter asked.

Rob stayed silent.

"Well?" Peter asked.

"Why do you want to know?" Rob asked.

"That's exactly what she said earlier." Peter sighed.

"Look, if you want to find out about my sister, ask her yourself, now is there anything else you want to say, or can I go now?" Rob asked.

"Yeah, actually, you, I know you're clever, so why don't you work?" Peter asked.

Rob snorted, "Why would I want to work?" He asked.

"So, you can have a life when you're older." Peter pointed out.

"Nah, I'll just take over from mum and Frank." Rob said, then he kicked himself, he shouldn't have said that.

"Who's Frank?" Peter asked.

"My mum's fella, been around for about five years." Rob answered.

"And what do they do?" Peter asked.

"They own a buisness." Rob answered, he wasn't actually lying, they did own a buisness, a drugs buisness.

"What buisness?" Peter asked.

"Just a buisness, does it matter?" Rob said, he was starting to feel a bit uncomfortable.

"What do they do?" Peter asked again.

"I'm going." Rob said, leaving the classroom before Mr Barlow had a chance to stop him, he had said too much, he had said way too much, he was so stupid.

* * *

Carla was in her bed, her arms wrapped around her legs, Frank had just left, he was eventually gone. Only then did she start to cry. If she cried while he was still there he would just hurt her more.

She needed to sort herself out before Rob came home, otherwise he would ask questions. She pulled herself up off the bed, what had she done to make this happen to her, what had she done tha was so wrong?

**Please review thanks...**


	4. Breaking down the walls

**Thanks for the reviews :) :P And I hope you enjoy this chapter :) :P**

Breaking down the walls

Carla sat at the desk in form on her own, Michelle wasn't in yet, she had gone to Dean's last night and the chances were that she wouldn't be in until third period at the earliest.

She kept her head down, attempting to avoid Mr Barlow's gaze. Carla could tell that he was looking at her but she refused to let herself look up, Rob had told her if the questions the teacher had been asking and Carla didn't understand why he was so interested in her family. What had she done to make him so bloody interested?

Today she was planning on keeping her head down and not saying a word. Thankfully she didn't have English today so was safe from the torture of Mrs Gilroy.

As soon as the bell rung Carla jumped up from her chair and was the first out of the door, she was gone before Mr Barlow even had a chance to say her name, she just couldn't deal with any questions right now.

She walked through the corridors with her head down, not wanting to attract any attention to herself. Some days she was fine, some days should could act like any other girl her age, other days, like today, she couldn't manage to pull her head out of the thoughts of her hell like home.

It was these kind of days when she was more likely to fly off the handle at the slightest thing, when she would react badly to the smallest thing someone said.

"Hey Car." Carla was pushed out of her own thoughts by Michelle turning up beside her.

"Hey Chelle, I thought you were with Dean?" Carla questioned.

"I was." Michelle said.

"And?" Carla asked.

"And what?" Michelle responded.

Carla sighed, "When you're with boys, you don't usually get to school until a lot later than this."

"Yeah, well..." Michelle trailed off.

"Have you two had a fight?" Carla asked.

"No, course not." Michelle said.

The two of them walked through the corridors in silence for a while until Michelle said, "If my mum, or dad, or Paul or Liam or anyone really asks you if I was at yours last night, I was."

"Oh, another relationship that you have conveniently forgotten to inform your family of." Carla laughed.

"You know what Paul and Liam are like, they're immediately gonna think that he's forcing me to sleep with him or something." Michelle said.

"But you are sleeping with him." Carla pointed out, "And he certainly isn't the first guy you slept with either."

"Yeah," Michelle sighed, "But they don't know that do they, imagine wht my mum would say if she knew I had sex with Dylan across the road, and Craig, she knows him too, and, damn, I'm gonna stop thinking about that now."

Carla let out a little laugh at the thought of Helen knowing about her daughter's antics, Helen hated Carla and had always said that she was a bad influence on 'her Michelle'. Helen would probably somehow and end up blaming Carla, she would probably say, 'That estate rag was pressuring our Michelle to sleep with boys because our Michelle thought Carla would make fun of her if she didn't sleep with loads of different boys like she had'.

Carla didn't care what Helen bloody Connor thought, because it was so far from the truth it could seem comical. If she ever found out the truth about what Frank was doing to her she would probably accuse Carla of making it up.

Carla decided to stop thinking about Michelle's annoying mother, and start preparing herself for the pains of geography with Mr Bracey, another very annoying teacher.

* * *

When geography finally finished Carla walked out of the room with clenched fists, it had used all of her self control not to go for the old, judmental idiotic excuse for a teacher, she just couldn'tcope with all the stress that he had given her, 'no homework','not paying attention' and all that crap. He was almsot as bad as Mrs Gilroy sometimes, Carla couldn't imagine what it would be like to have both teachers at the same time, it would probably end up as a whole lot of detentions.

"What do we have next?" Michelle asked.

Carla looked at her timetable, "Maths."

"Brilliant." Michelle sighed.

After another few very testing lessons it was lunch and Carla could finally relax and let her fists out of their almost permantly clenched position. Carla sat with Michelle at a table but Michelle didn't seem very happy, she looked really worried about something or other.

"Chelle, are you all right?" Carla asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Michelle sighed, even though she sounded anything but fine.

"Are you sure because, you don't look it." Carla asked again.

"I do feel a little rough." Michelle admitted.

"Why don't you go to the nurse, you could probably go home." Carla suggested.

"I think I'll just go straight home to be honest, see you tomorrow." Before Carla knew what to say Michelle was gone, what was wrong with her, Carla had never seen Michelle like that before, she was usually really bubbly and happy, the absolute opposite of her depressing mood swings and angry outbursts.

People had often wondered how she and Michelle's friendship exactly worked, they were total opposites. Carla, hated by all teachers, Michelle, loved by all teachers, Carla, from the worst estate in Manchester, Michelle, bought up in a life of luxury, Carla, not really very talkative, especially around strangers, Michelle, her mouth never stopped, the list was endless.

Soon the bell rung and Carla made her way back to form, again attempting to avoid Mr Barlow.

* * *

Peter watched Carla as she sat down, there was a look of deep sadness on her face, like she was thinking about something very upsetting, he wasn't sure whether he should talk to her again or not, he just wasn't sure.

There was something about her that was drawing him in, he couldn't exactly say what it was, but it was really strong. Maybe it was the air of mystery surrounding her, to him it was like there was an invisible wall surrounding her that she had spent years building up, that she didn't want anyone to pull down, that she wouldn't let anyone pull down, she wouldn't let them close enough.

Or maybe it was the fact that he could see exactly how sad she was, she always had that sadness in her eyes, even when she was smiling, it was always there, shadowing her wherever she went.

"Carla, could you wait behind when the bell goes please." Peter had spoke before he had properly thought it through. He watched Carla's expression change to one of a very annoyed person, maybe even angry.

Soon the only two people left in the room was Carla and himself.

"What's wrong?" He came straight out with the question.

"What do you mean?" Carla asked.

"I know that something's wrong, so you might as well tell me, I can help." Peter said kindly.

Carla scoffed, "No one can help me."

"Well I can, if you tell me what's wrong." Peter repeated.

"No you can't, no one can help me, I've told you." Carla sighed.

"Why don't you just tell me, I can see if there is anything I can do." Peter tried rephrasing the question, but it didn't work.

"You can't help me, I can't even help myself, nothing will ever be all right, whatever happens, I'll still have my memories." Carla could feel tears starting to form in her eyes.

Peter stayed silent and just looked at the teenager stood in front of him, he had to work out what was the wrong,he had to help her.

"Carla just tell me what's wrong." Peter tried again.

Carla just shook her head, and as she felt a tear start rolling down her cheek she turned and ran, away from this place, away from Mr Barlow. She had said more to him after knowing him for 5 minutes than she had said to anyone in the 5 years that this had been going on. What was happening to her? She never trusted easily and now, here she was, already trusting Mr Barklow more than she had ever trusted anyone, he was starting to break down the wall she had built around herslef without hardly even trying, what was happening?

**I think this chapter has quite a lot of mistakes in so sorry  
A-N-Y-W-A-Y  
Please review, thanks :) :P**


	5. What's wrong

**Thanks for the reviews :) :P  
Just in case any of you don't know Susan is Peter's twin sister  
**

What's wrong

Carla had composed herself before going to her last lesson, albeit twenty minutes late. She had managed to survive and was now on her way to Michelle's, Carla was worried about her best mate, she hadn't seemed herself earlier and she wanted to check if she was all right.

As Carla walked down the row of posh houses she swore she could see people looking at her with disgust. These expensive places always made her feel uncomfortable. Everyone down here knew where she was from, and even though most of them hadn't even talked to her they looked down their noses, they looked at her like she was scum.

She walked up the picturesque path to get to Michelle's front door and was just about to ring the doorbell when the door was opened and Paul and Liam stepped outside.

"Carla, what are you doing here?" Paul asked, it was a secret to no one that Paul like her, even though he was about 20.

"I'm here to see Chelle, is she all right?" Carla asked.

"I thought she was with you?" Liam asked.

"She was last night, but at lunch she didn't feel good so she went home." Carla explained.

"Well she didn't." Paul said.

"Oh." Carla said, what was Michelle playing at, actually, she was probably with Dean, but why had she lied to her about it.

"Where is she then?" Liam asked.

"Who knows, she'll be fine, I'll go look for her." Before Liam had a chance to ask any more questions Carla was walking off down the road. She had to walk past the college to get home and she kept her head down as she felt some of the boys staring at her. Boys always stared, it wasn't fair.

Suddenly she saw Dean, but Michelle wasn't with him. She caleld his name, "Dean, Dean!"

Dean turned round to see Carla, "Oh, hey Carla, have you seen Michelle, I'm texting her but she isn't answering."

"Isn't she with you?" Carla asked.

"No, obviously not, why?" Dean asked.

Carla sighed, "AT lunch she didn't feel well so went home but she isn't at home so I thought she was with you but seems like she isn't." Carla explained.

"Well, where is she then?" Dean asked.

"Your guess is a s good as mine." Carla sighed. What the hell was Michelle playing at!

Carla pulled out her phone and rung Michelle but she didn't pick up, something was wrong, Carla wasn't sure what it was, but something was definitely wrong.

"I'm gonna go look around for her, I'll call you if I find her." Carla said.

"Yeah, I'll have a look too." Dean said as thw two of them set off in different directions looking for the same person, it wasn't like Michelle to do a dissapearing act, that was what she did quite a lot, but everyone usually knew excactly where Michelle was.

A text came through on her phone and Carla had a look but felt her heart sink as she saw it was Frank.

_Frank: Where are you, come home now or you're going to be in big trouble_

Carla didn't know what to do, she didn't want Frank to be angry but she needed to find Michelle, what should she do. Carla turned off her phone and carried on looking for Michelle, she would take whatever punishment Frank gave her, she just needed to make sure Michelle was all right.

Another text came through, and another, and another, but Carla ignored them, she didn't want to have Frank's threats spinning around her head when she needed to be concentrating on Michelle.

As Carla walked past the park a thought suddenly trailed across her mind. There was a place that she and Michelle would go to when they were younger, it was really quiet and they wern't sure if anyone else knew it was there. Michelle probably wouldn't be there, but it was worth a try. They hadn't been there in years, Carla was about 12 the last time she had went, one of the best things was that she could forget about everything in there. She knew that she was safe and that no one would find her, maybe she should try going again some time.

She walked into the forest of dense tree's and soon she was infront of the den. She nad Michelle had been exploring when they found it. Where the tree's were so close together their branches had all tangled around eachother, like a natural woven wall. Carla went around the back and looked at the small gap that she and Michelle used to climb under and into the quite small space.

"Chelle, are you in there?" Carla called, for all she knew she was talking to no one. Then she heard a quiet sniff.

"Chelle?" Carla asked. She could hear someone moving around inside and tentatively she got down on her hands and knees and poked her head through the hole. Carla saw Michelle sitting in the corner of the den, she looked like she had been crying.

Carla was soon sitting next to Michelle holding her sobbing friend in her arms, "What's wrong?"

* * *

"What!" Peter exclaimed, Susan could not be doing this to him.

"I need it Peter, I need it!" Susan cried, she knew se shouldn't be doing this but she couldn't stop herself.

"I'm a teacher! If I do this and someone finds out then I'll be fired!" Peter said angrily.

"Peter, I know, I just need it." Susan sighed, she had to get her brother to understand, she had to.

"Why can't you just get it yourself and leave me out of this?" Peter asked.

"I don't have any money." Susan admitted.

"What, you've blown all the money that mum left you!" Peter exclaimed, he actually couldn't believe his sister, how could she have been so stupid?

"I, I wasn't thinking straight, I just need it to help me through the day, you don't understand." Susan cried, collapsing onto the sofa.

"No, I don't understand, when I first found out that you were taking the stuff I tried to get you to stop, I tried to make you realise what you were doing to yourself, but you wouldn't listen and look at you now!" Peter yelled. He hated seeing his sister like this, a quivering wreck in front of him begging him for money to spend on drugs, it was like she was a different person.

"Peter, you know I've tried to stop, you know I have, but I can't." Susan said as she started sobbing.

Peter sat down next to his sister, he knew what he was about to do was wrong but he hated seeing her like this, he had to do it, for her.

"Where do you get them from?" He asked.

"Get what from?" Susan asked.

"The drugs, where do you get them from?" Peter asked again.

"The estate, do you mean that you'll-"

"Yes, I'll get them for you, but only this once, Susan, only once, now where do you get them from?" Peter asked. What was he doing? This was putting his whole future into jeaprody.

"It's a man and a woman, they live at 13 Turpin road, just knock on the door, there will always be someone there." Susan said.

"What are their names?" Peter asked.

"Frank and Sharon."

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	6. Drink and drugs

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Drink and drugs

"So, are you going to tell me what's wrong?" Michelle had finally stopped crying and she and Carla were now just sat looking at eachother. Michelle didn't say anything to answer Carla's question.

"Chelle, I'm waiting for an answer here." Carla said again.

Again Michelle didn't say anything, she just pulled something out of her bag, a bottle of vodka.

"How did you get that?" Carla asked, realising that Michelle wasn't going to answer her question, not now at least

Again Michelle said nothing, just unscrewed the lid and put the cold glass to her mouth, grimacing as she swallowed the burning, bitter liquid. She held the bottle out to Carla, who just shrugged her shoulders and took the bottle. Michelle obviously wasn't going to tell her what was wrong so, a drink never hurt anyone. Anyway, she needede a drink to prepare herself for what she knew was coming later when she eventually returned home.

* * *

Peter kept his hands in his pockets as he walked down the grubby, grimy street, Turpin road was definitely one of the worst places he had ever seen, scrap that, this whole estate was one of the worst places he had ever seen.

He couldn't really understand how people lived here, how children lived here. He had seen a countless amount of gangs hanging around street corners, kids smoking, probably half of them on drugs too.

This place was so different to the place that was hardly 15 minutes away, the differences so obvious that it was almost comical. How come a place that was so nice, so pretty, that had so much money was this far away from a place that was the absolute opposite.

But Turpin road, this was one of the worst streets he had walked dow so far, most of the houses had boarded up windows, rubbish and all kinds of junk chucked in the front garden. Cigarette stubbs, chewing gum and other unidentifiable bits littered the pavement.

He walked up to number 13 and took a good, long look. It wasn't particulalry nice but it wasn't half as bad as some of the other houses down the road. He took a step forward and rang the doorbell, waiting for someone to come and open the door.

A woman with dark hair opened the door, "Who are you?" She asked quite rudely.

"I don't think that's a way to talk to your customer's, is it?" Peter asked, "You must be Sharon."

The woman nodded and ushered Peter inside the house, it was quite tidy actually, the opposite of what Peter had been expecting. "Frank, it's a customer." The woman yelled and Peter looked as a man came down the stairs. As soon as he saw him Peter hated the look of him. He looked like a snake, he looked like a disgusting creature, he looked evil.

"I'm here to pick up Susan Barlow's package." Peter said, looking at Frank in the eyes, neither one of the two men breaking away from eachothers stare.

"Who are you?" Frank asked.

"I'm her brother, look do you have the drugs or not, I have the money and-" Peter was cut off by Frank's voice, which sounded just about as evil as he looked.

"Honey, go get Susan's package, you know which one it is." Frank practically ordered.

Sharon just nodded and made her way in to one of the rooms.

"So, why has Susan sent you here, she usually comes herself." Frank asked.

"It doesn't matter why she's sent me, I'm just getting her package and giving it to her, that's all." Peter answered. He felt uncomfortable in the house, he just wanted out of there as soon as possible.

"Money." Frank said.

Peter just nodded and pulled his wallet out of his pocket, he pulled five twenty pound notes out and handed them to Frank, who counted them then pocketed them greedily.

The two men sat in silence until Sharon came into the room holding a small brown parcel. Peter grabbed it out of her hands and left the house without saying a word.

What he didn't realise was that a very amused Rob was watching him from the top of the stairs, thinking about how juicy this gossip would be when ti got around school.

* * *

Between the two of them Carla and Michelle had gone through almost the whole bottle of vodka. Whatever differences they had they both had the ability to drink, and drink lots.

It was fun getting drunk with Michelle, they both said the weirdest things that seemed funny, usually. But today, they were both quite sad, they were both drinking because something was on their minds and this was not an attempt to have fun, this was an attempt to forget, or at least push the thoughts to the back of their minds.

Michelle passed the bottle back to Carla so she could finish the last few drops in the bottom of the bottle. Carla swallowed them down and for the first time since Michelle had opened the bottle she spoke, "We should probably get goign now." The effects of the vodka had made her a bit woozy and the word slurred as they came out of her mouth.

"Yeah." Michelle replied. With a lot of difficulty they both managed to crawl out of the small hole and make their way back to the main bit of the park, all though with quite a bit of stumbling and a few falls, mostly from Michelle.

They walked through the park with their arms linked together, ignoring the dissapproving looks coming from the other, mostly older people in the park. Carla pulled Michelle up after she tripped over again and pulld her phone out.

"Who you calling?" Michelle slurred.

"Dean," Carla answered, "I told him I'd text him if I found you and you might want him to take you home the state you're in."

"No!" Michelle exclaimed, staring at Carla imploringly.

"Why not?" Carla asked, confused at why Michelle didn't want Dean to come and pick her up, "He was worried earlier you know, he was looking for you, if you look at your phone you'll have like hundreds of messages and calls from him."

"Look, I said no, all right?" Michelle said again. Carla slowly turned her phone off, trying to work out exactly why Michelle didn't want Dean to come and get her. The words had sobered them both up a bit and they were walking in silence again, both of them in their own minds.

Frank was going to kill her, well not kill, but maybe that would be better, just get it over with so he wouldn't be able to do what he did to her, whoch was slowly killing her inside. She knew that and so did he.

She and Michelle had come to the part of the journey where they spilt up and made thir way back to their own, opposite homes.

"See you tomorrow then." Carla said, looking into Michelle's eyes as she did so but she only saw sadness in them, nothign else.

"Yeah, see you." Michelle replied, looking back into Carla's eyes.

They wrapped their arms around eachother, both comforting eachother even though they didn't know what was wrong with the other, but it felt good anyway, they felt safe together.

* * *

"I've got them." Peter said, chucking the brown parcel into Susan's lap. She opened it excitedly and smiled as she saw the small plastic bag full of white powder.

"Thanks Peter, I owe you one." Susan said, pushing the bag into her pocket.

"Yeah, you do." Peter said, collapsing down on to the sofa.

"I-I am sorry you know." Susan said.

"I know." Peter sighed, pulling his twin sister into a hug. It was weird, they had been so close when they grew up but now, they were just so different.

Susan eventually pulled away and picked her coat up from where she had put it over the back of the chair.

"Bye, see you soon." She said, opening the door and walking out onto the cold street.

Peter heard the door close before letting out a sigh, "Yeah, see you."

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	7. Soft

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Warning: In this chapter I've written the lead up to the assault in quite a lot of detail, but not the actual attack. I don't really know if it needs a warning but I'm putting one just incase...  
**

Soft

Carla quietly opened the door, hoping that by some miracle Frank was out and she could slip in and pretend she had been there the whole time, unfortunately she had no such luck.

As soon as she closed the door she came face to face with Frank, "Where have you been?" He asked in a malicious voice.

"I-I was with Michelle." Carla said, meeting Frank's gaze even though she was terrified.

"Have you been drinking?" Frank asked, grabbing Carla's arm and pulling her into the front room where her mum was watching something on the TV.

"No, I haven't not much, it was only a little bit-" Carla protested, but Frank shut her up by holding her arm tighter. Carla grimaced in pain but didn't say anything, knowing that if she did he would just cause her more pain.

"What's she done now?" Sharon asked, she didn't really care, she didn't see why she had to look after Carla and Rob, theywereoldenough to fend for themselves now, she had looked after herself at their age.

"Apparently she's been out with Michelle, even though I told her to come back straight after school, and she's been drinking." Frank said as he gripped Carla's arm tighter.

"And? I don't see why you're so bothered Frank, she's a fifteen year old girl, of course she's going to be out with her mates and drinking, I know I was." Sharon didn't see anything wrong with what she was saying, she didn't feel any love or motherly instict towards Carla, or Rob for that matter, she just didn't give a damn what they got up to.

Frank let out a sigh and dragged Carla back into the hallway, "We're going to finish this later." He spat before storming out of the house, probably to go meet some druggie or someone.

Carla sighed and sat down at the kitchen table, on her arm there was a red mark that would definitely be a bruise by tomorrow. She relished the silence, she couldn't hear anything, that was until Rob came and sat down opposite her.

"You'll never guess who came to get some coke today." He smiled.

"Who?" Carla asked, she didn't really care what weirdo came to get drugs, they were all the same.

"Mr Barlow." Rob said with a grin.

"Mr Barlow? My form tutor Mr Barlow?" Carla asked, it couldn't've been him, he was definitely not a druggie.

"Yes, the very one, I can't wait for this to get round school." Rob said gleefully, he loved finding out everyone's dirty secrets and spreading them around, it was even better dishing the dirt on teachers.

"You haven't told anyone yet, have you?" Carla asked, she was starting to form a little plan in her mind to get the teacher off her back, but Rob couldn't tell anyone.

"No, not yet, why?" Rob asked, looking at Carla with a confused expression.

"Don't tell anyone." Carla ordered.

"Why not?" Rob asked, why did Carla always have to ruin his fun.

"Becuase I said so." Carla persisted, she couldn't be bothered to go into all the details with her brother.

"But sis!" Rob protested.

"If you tell anyone I'll tell everyone about Mr Booboo." Carla threatened. Mr Booboo was a little teddy thing that Rob had since he was a baby, he still had it in his room.

"You wouldn't!" Rob said.

"Wouldn't I?" Carla replied.

Rob just glared at her and stormed up to his room, his sister was so annoying!

* * *

Carla was sitting on her bed when Frank came into her room and locked the door behind him. She took in a long, shaky breath as he sat down next to her.

"You know that if you stop being so disobedient, I wouldn't do this to you." Frank said in his evil voice. Carla flinched away as he placed his hand near the top of her leg.

"Carla, come on, you know that you can't get away." He whispered into her ear.

Carla just moved further away but Frank grabbed her leg again, more forcefully this time.

"Why can't you just leave me alone?" Carla asked in a voice not much louder than a whisper, "Why do you have to do it?"

"Becuase you need to be punished." Frank replied, moving his hand higher up Carla's leg.

Suddenly Carla just couldn't stand it, she jumped up off the bed and made a run for the door, but she wasn't quick enough. Frank grabbed her waist and dragged her back to the bed.

Carla kept struggling though, she didn't want to go through this anymore. Frank's hand was tightly over her mouth so that she couldn't scream, so that she couldn't do anything but attempt to hit him with her flailing limbs.

When Frank hit her over the side of her face she eventually stopped fighting, she had been stupid, she couldn't get away. Frank pushed her onto the bed so she was lying down and climbed over the top her.

"You shouldn't have done that." He spat.

Carla closed her eyes and held her breath as his hands started to move all over her body, as he violated her like he had done so many times before.

* * *

Carla kept her head down all the way to school. She had attempted to cover up the bruise that covered half of her face but all the make up in the world couldn't cover the dark mark that Frank had given her.

She hadn't talked out all that morning, last nights attack had been particularly violent, but it was all her fault, she shouldn't have tried to get away, she knew that would just make it more painful but she did it anyway because she was just stupid.

Her head was banging, half of it becuase of the bruise and half of it becuase of the vodka she had drunk the day before. She didn't expect Michelle to be in, and she was right.

She kept her head down all through form, making sure her hair was covering her face. She stayed behing when the bell rang, she needed to have a nice little chat with Mr Barlow.

"Are you all right?" Peter asked, he had seen the way that Carla had kept her head down, like she was hiding something.

"Course I am, I just need to talk to you about something." Carla said, she ahd walked up to her teacher's desk full of confidence but all of it had disappeared since she had started talking.

As Carla lifted her arm to make sure her hair was covering her face her sleeve slipped down so that the bruise on her arm was in clear sight. When Carla realised that Mr Barlow could see her arm she pulled her sleeve back down but her hair slipped a bit so Peter caught a glimpse of the bruise.

"Carla, what happened?" He asked, how could she have got a bruise that size?

"Nothing, I just walked into a door." Carla lied, she should have just left, and put her plan into action when the bruises had healed.

"You don't get a bruise like that from walking into a door." Peter argued.

"Well I did." Carla persisted.

Peter just sighed and went and stood next to Carla, "Let me have a look."

Carla kept her gaze down as Mr Barlow pushed her hair behind her ear, leaving her face in fuul view.

"Oh my god." Peter murmered. Half of Carla's face was a dark mark that was very swollen. He ran his fingers down the side of her face, he knew that someone had done that to her, but who?

If it was anyone else touching her face Carla would have flinched away, but with Mr Barlow it felt different, his touch was soft, it was comforting, he felt safe.

"Who did this to you?" Peter asked.

Carla slowly looked up into his brown eyes, they were so kind, so nice, but she knew she couldn't tell him, she couldn't tell anyone.

"Who was it?" Peter asked again, staring back into Carla's mesmerising green eyes, they were beautiful.

"It doesn't matter." Carla whispered, still staring into her teacher's eyes.

There was a connection between them, neither of them wanted to break this thing that was holding them together.

"It does matter, now tell me who it was." Peter said. When he thought of someone hurting Carla he was filled with some kind of anger. He wasn't a man that was angered easily but he felt protective of the obviously broken teenager.

Carla eventually looked away, "I've got to go." She said, finding herself unable to look back up at her teacher, she didn't understand what had just happened.

"No, you've got to tell me who did that to you." Peter persisted.

"Just leave me alone, okay?" Carla said, starting to feel a bit angry again.

"I'm not going to leave you alone, not till I find out who did that." Peter repeated.

"Well tough! You'll never find out and you won't try." Carla said, her voice getting slightly louder.

"I will try, and I will find out." Peter said, Carla's mood had changed so dramatically, two minutes ago she had been so quiet and calm but now, she was like a different person."

"You won't try, if you do, I'll tell everyone that you bought them drugs yesterday." Carla said, smiling a little bit when she saw Peter's face.

"What do you mean?" Peter asked, how could she know?

"Oh don't play all innocent, our kid saw you walk out of the house with them." Carla smiled, staring at Peter with a triumphant look in her eye.

Peter just stayed silent, "That's what I thought." Carla scoffed as she turned around and made her way out of the classroom, pulling her hair over her face as she went.

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	8. Thinking

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Thinking

Peter hadn't been able to stop thinking about Carla all day, about the bruise on her face, about what she had said about Rob seeing him buy the drugs.

But how had Rob seen him, he was pretty sure that no one else was on the street when he had left the house. Peter suddenly remembered his conversation with Rob the other day, about how he was going to take over the buisness from his mum and Frank, but he hadn't said what the buisness was.

That Sharon lady did look quite a lot like Carla when he thought about it, they had the same hair and the same eyes, that same green. Was there any chance that Frank had given Carla that bruise, Sharon didn't seem very nice but she didn't seem capapble of hurting anyone but Frank, well, as soon as Peter had seen him he had known he was pure evil.

Peter felt some kind of anger rising up inside of him, how could a man hurt an obviously already damaged girl like Carla, how could he. Peter attempted to calm himself down, he didn't even know if it was definitely Frank who had hit Carla, she could've been in a fight or something, he was just presuming that it was Frank because of what he had seen and he was jumping to conclusions.

If Rob hadn't seen him buy those drugs Peter could've just asked Carla, not that she would actually tell him but he could still try, but no, if he tried Carla might tell someone about him buying the drugs and he didn't want to risk his career, he couldn't risk his career.

* * *

Carla couldn't concentrate in any of her lessons that day, she felt kind of bad about what she had done to Mr Barlow but it had to be done, she couldn't risk him finding out about Frank, she couldn't risk herself telling him about Frank.

She didn't know why but she had considered telling Mr Barlow that Frank had given her the bruise, not about everything, just the bruise but, he was the first person she had ever come close to telling. What was so special about him? What made him so trustworthy? Why did they have this weird connection?

Carla just couldn't explain it, it was all so strange. His eyes, his brown eyes that were so kind, so soft, so addictive. She swore that if she could she would look into them all day and it wouldn't get boring, they were just so interesting.

"Carla, are you listening to me." Carla pulled herself out of her head to see Mr Green, her maths teacher, standing infront of her.

"What, yeah." Carla replied, even thought it was obvious she was lying.

"Then why isn't your book open?" Mr Green questioned.

Carla just groaned and rolled her eyes, she knew what was coming.

"Detention at lunchtime." Mr Green said in an almost happy way.

Carla let out a sigh, giving out detentions made some teachers so happy, it was unbelievable. It was like they woke up every morning thinking abotu what student's they would be able to punish. It was just annoying.

* * *

Carla walked into the detention room to see no one but her little brother moodily sitting at a desk at the back of the room. Letting out a sigh she sat down next to him.

"What are you doing in here?" She asked.

"Apparently I was rude to Mrs Gilroy, what about you?" Rob sighed, he hated being cooped up in this room, especially with his older sister.

"I was off task in maths." Carla replied, she didn't particularly enjoy being stuck in here with her little brother.

"Anyway, can I tell anyone about Mr Barlow yet?" Rob asked, he had been dying to tell everyone but knew that he couldn't, otherwise Carla would carry out her threat.

"No, you can't." Carla replied.

"Why not?" Rob whined.

"Because if you tell anyone I'll tell everybody about Mr Booboo, I've told you this already." Carla sighed, she was getting tired of Rob.

"What happened to your face?" Rob suddenly asked.

Damn, she had forgotten about. Carla quickly rearranged her hair so that it was covering the bruise.

"So, what happened?" Rob asked again, trying to get a better look at his sisters face.

"Nothing." Carla replied quickly, turning her face away from him.

"Just tell me what happened sis," Rob pleaded, "Were you in a fight?"

"No, I wasn't in a fight and I'm not going to tell you what happened so shut up!" Carla said, Rob was really annoying her right now.

"Moody cow." Rob muttered.

"Annoying baby." Carla retorted.

Just then Mrs Gilroy walked into the room, realised that Carla and Rob were the only ones in detention and looked at them like they were some kind of bad smell.

"So, two siblings in detention, some nice family bonding time." Mrs Gilroy said, giving them a sickly sweet smile.

Carla and Rob just looked at eachother, Mrs Gilroy annoyed both of them more than they could say and neither of them could be held responsible for their actions if she annoyed them enough.

Carla took a deep breath in, preparing herslef for a hell like lunchtime.

* * *

"Carla, I need to talk to you." Peter called as the bell went, he had to explain to her that the drugs weren't for him, she had to understand and he had to find out if it was Frank that had given her that bruise.

"What?" Carla asked moodily as she glared at Mr Barlow, she had come so close to slapping Mrs Gilroy at lunchtime and she wouldn't be able to control her anger for much longer.

"Those drugs, they-" Peter tried to explain but Carla interrupted him.

"Sir, I'm not going to tell anyone, and neither is Rob. If you want to be a druggie that's fine with me, but if you keep interfering in my life it might just accidently slip out." Carla smiled as she said this, enjoying the expression that had formed on Mr Barlow's face.

Carla was blackmailing him! Carla was actually trying to blackmail him! "Look, Carla, the drugs weren't for me, they were for my sister." Peter explained, looking into Carla's eyes, trying to get her to believe him.

"Your sister?" Carla questioned.

"Yes, she's called Susan, she had some bad stuff go on in her life and she, anyway, to cut a long story short she's run out of money so I'm getting them for her." Peter explained, Carla had to believe him.

"You should get her to stop." Carla advised, she had seen how drugs ruined peoples lives and how they hurt the people close to them.

"You think I haven't tried?" Peter questioned.

"Do you actually know how to get her to stop?" Carla asked.

"Not really." Peter admitted.

"Make her go cold turkey, don't let her have anything at all, then make her go and see a therapist or something, but don't let her keep going." Carla told him, she didn't really know why she was telling him how to get his sister of drugs but she was.

"Will that really work?" Peter asked, it sounded way to easy.

"It'll be hard," Carla said as if she could read Peter's mind, "There are loads of side effects and stuff, it isn't very nice for the person recovering or the people helping."

"How do you know all of this?" Peter asked, Carla seemed very knowledgable about all of this.

"I live with drug dealers, I hear stuff that they talk about." Carla admitted.

"So, back to you." Peter said, making his way towards Carla, he could see the way her eyes fell to the ground when he said this, the way her body drooped.

"There's nothing to talk about." Carla sighed, even though she knew that Mr Barlow knew she was lying.

"We both know that's not true, you need to tell me what happened to your face." Peter said softly, pulling Carla's face up so he could see the bruise again.

"You know that you could still get fired for buying drugs." Carla said, even though she knew deep down that for some reason she could never do that to Mr Barlow.

"I don't care, I want to know what's wrong with you." Peter persisted, looking into Carla's eyes, looking into those beautiful green circles which hid so much pain.

"Nothing's wrong." Carla said again, she was almost whispering now.

The two of them were just stood there looking into eachothers eyes, Peter was holding Carla's face softly with one hand and before they knew what was happening their lips were touching.

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	9. So worng but so right

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So wrong but so right

It felt perfect, so amazing, so natural, the feeling of Mr Barlow's lips pressing softly onto her own, Mr Barlow, what was she doing? He was her form tutor, oh god.

Peter worked realised what he was doing at the same time as Carla and they both immediately pulled away. They stood in an awkward silence for a few moments, both reflecting over what had just happened.

Carla spoke first, "That didn't just happen." She said, as if she was trying to convince herself.

"Yeah, nothing just happened, at all." Peter added, unable to even look at Carla.

"No weird stuff, nothing, nothing at all." Carla repeated, letting an awkward, not really happy smile onto her face.

"Absolutely nothing." Peter agreed.

"I should probably go now, I'm gonna be late." Carla said awkwardly as she slowly made her way to the door of the classroom.

"Yeah, you probably should." Peter mumbled, hardly able to get the words out of his mouth.

Carla just nodded quickly and rushed out into the corridor. God what had just happened?

Peter collapsed into his chairs, the reality of what he, he and his student, had just done. Sure it was only a kiss but a kiss that could get him fired and cuase him to lose his whole career, what had possessed him to do that? It was so wrong, it was wrong on so many different levels but, it had felt right too.

It had felt like it was supposed to happen, at that moment, when their lips had touched softly, nothing else in the world mattered, it was just him and Carla, no one else.

She was his student though, she was 15 years old! He couldn't do this, they couldn't do this. He wasn't going to say a word and as long as Carla didn't it was going to be fine, it was all going to be fine.

* * *

Carla walked to Michelle's house even though she wasn't really concentrating on her best friend, she couldn't stop thinking about Mr Barlow, and the kiss. That kiss, it should never have happened, if Frank somehow found out, no, forget about Frank for now. Today he had given her permission to stay out until five, after that she had to be home or, well, she knew exactly what.

Every time she walked up Michelle's front path she felt awkward, out of place, like someone like her wasn't worthy to walk somewhere that rich, 'perfect' people walked, it was stupid really. It was people like Michelle's mum that made her feel like that. When she was younger she had refused to be intimidated by the old cow but as she was getting older and more insecure it was getting harder.

Carla took a deep breath and rang the doorbell, hearing the bells echo through the relatively large house infront of her. A few seconds later Liam opened the door.

"Hey Carla, are you looking for Chelle?" Liam questioned.

"Yeah, is she all right?" Carla replied.

"I think so, go straight up, mum's out." Liam waved Carla through the door and she made her way upstairs into Michelle's massive bedroom. When Carla walked in Michelle was lying in bed but she wasn't asleep, she looked like she'd been crying, again.

Carla quietly sat down on the end of the bed, "Are you all right?" Carla asked.

"Yeah, still got a bit of a headache, that's all." Michelle replied.

Carla was about to start talking to her about something else when Michelle jumped out of bed and made a rush to the bathroom, where Carla could hear her throwing her guts up. It didn't sound very pleasant.

As Carla was surveying Michelle's bedroom as a way to pass time until her friend returned something sticking out from under Michelle's pillow caught her eye, it couldn't be, could it?

Carla pulled the little white stick out from under the pillow, oh god, it was, it was a pregnancy test, and it was positive.

* * *

Peter rang the buzzer for Susan's flat and impatiently waited for her to answer. He was standing with a bag full of his clothes and stuff, he hadn't told Susan he was coming because he knew she would ask questions and he knew that she wouldn't want him to do this, but he had to.

"Who is it?" Peter heard Susan's voice coming out of the speaker.

"It's me." Peter replied.

"Come up, the doors open." Peter pushed open the door and walked up the stairs into Susan's small flat.

"Hey Peter, how are you, do you want a brew?" Susan asked, obviously not noticing the bag Peter was holding.

"Yeah, sure." Peter siad as he sat down on the sofa. Susan looked particularly happy right now, her eyes were really bright and she had a massive smile plastered on her face. He shook his head, how did he let her get like this? Why hadn't he stopped her sooner?

Susan handed Peter his drink, sat down next to him and only then did she notice the bag.

"What have you got that for?" She asked, looking at Peter with a confused expression.

"I'm coming to stay with you for a bit." Peter replied as he took a sip of his steaming drink.

"Why? Is something wrong with your flat?" Susan asked.

"Nope." Peter answered.

"Then why are you staying here?" Susan asked, she was more than a little bit confused right now.

"Because I'm going to get you off the drugs." Peter replied as Susan stared at him with a shocked expression on her face.

* * *

Carla was sat holding the pregnancy test when Michelle walked back into the room. Carla looked up at her best friend who had a defeated expression on her face.

"You weren't supposed to see that." Michelle sighed.

"You knew yesterday, didn't you?" Carla questioned, ignoring Michelle's statement.

Michelle just nodded as she felt tears threatening to fall from her eyes, again.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Carla asked.

"I wasn't going to tell anyone." Michelle admitted with a sigh.

"What were you gonna do? Come home in nine months with a baby?" Carla asked, wondering what exactly Michelle was planning to do.

"No." Michelle answered shortly, grabbing the test out of Carla's hand.

"Then what?" Carla questioned.

"I'm getting rid of it." Michelle said as if it was nothing.

"What do you mean?" Carla asked, Michelle couldn't be serious, she hadn't even told anyone, she was confused.

"You know, abortion, this thing which means I don't have to have a baby." Michelle said moodily.

"Have you even told Dean, it is his baby too." Carla pointed out but when Michelle turned her face away it gave Carla the answer.

"He won't want it." Michelle said with a sniff.

"How do you know if you don't ask?" Carla said softly.

"I just know, all right?" Michelle said, raising her voice slightly as she felt anger start to rise up inside of her, why couldn't Carla just shut up!

"Chelle, you've got to tell him." Carla sighed.

"No I don't and that's final." Michelle yelled as she pushed Carla out of her room and slammed the door in her face.

**Please review thanks :) :P**


	10. Parent problems

**Thanks for the reviews :) :P**

Parent problems

"No, Peter, you can't." Susan eventually said, her brother could not be serious, did he think she hadn't tried to stop taking the stuff? He didn't understand.

"Yes I can Susan, and I will." Peter said honestly. He was going to get his sister of the drugs no matter what it took.

"But, you don't understand! You don't understand how hard it is, you don't understand what it feels like to need them to get through the day, you just don't understand anything at all!" Susan sighed, Peter couldn't help her.

"I know, I know it'll be hard but I'll be with you every step of the way, I'll help you through all the side effects and everything, I won't just abandon you, I promise." Peter said honestly as he looked into his sisters eyes.

"What if I don't want to stop." Susan suddenly whispered.

"What do you mean, of course you want to stop?" Peter said, confusion clear in his voice, Susan did want to stop, didn't she?

"What if I want to keep going, what if I don't want to go through the pain of stopping?" Susan carried on.

"You do want to though, you do because you know that if you don't, you know that if you don't, you're going to end up dead." Peter breathed, looking straight into Susan's eyes.

"Okay," Susan said in a shaky voice, Peter's words obviously having affected her, "I'll stop, I'll let you help me, under one condition."

"Anything." Peter smiled, Susan was finally going to get better.

"You sort stuff out with dad."

Peter's smile dropped from his face immediately, was Susan actually being serious, there was no way on earth that he was going to even attempt to talk to his dad, no way, at all.

"Susan, you know that I can't do that, you know what he did to us." Peter decided he would try and talk his sister out of her stupid plan.

"He let someone else bring us up because it would be better for us, not him, not anyone else, us. He knew that he wans't capable of bringing up two young children on his own so he did what was best for us. You're the one who can't see that." Susan stated angrily.

"But Susan I-"

"No! You sort things out with him or I carry on doing the drugs." Susan stated as she crossed her arms.

Peter let out a sigh, Susan had put him in an impossible position, and she knew that he would choose her safety over anything.

"All right then." Peter grumbled moodily, "I'll give him a call tomorrow."

Carla's mind was running into overdrive. What was Michelle thinking? She had to talk to someone that could help her. Carla understood that Michelle didn't want to tell her mum but she had to tell Dean, he was the father. And who knew, maybe he would surprise her and tell her that he did want the baby.

But Carla couldn't tell him, it had to be Michelle or no one, anyway, Carla couldn't do that to her, tell Dean knowing that she didn't want to tell him, she would however do anything she could to change Michelle's mind and get her to tell him.

Carla heard her phone ringing and pulled it out of her bag to see that it was Frank. It wasn't 5 yet, why was he calling? She took a deep breath and answered the phone.

"Hello." She tried to make her voice sound normal but it was no use, anyway he would be able to tell she was terrified without even hearing her voice, he knew how much he scared her.

"Carla, you need to come home, now!" Frank's voice sounded urgent, not angry, more like worried.

"What is it?" Carla asked, she was quite confused.

"You just need to come back now, as quick as you can." Frank said, he sounded like he was rushing about.

"Okay, I'll be back in five minutes." Carla said as the line went dead.

Well, that was strange to say the least. Most of the phone calls Carla had from Frank were full of threats and angry rants, that had just been weird, what was happening that was so important?

Carla rounded the corner down Turpin road and got a shock when she saw an ambulance parked outside her house, what was going on? She increased her pace and walked into her house to see Frank and Rob standing, looking very worried, in the hallway.

"What's happened?" Carla asked, what was going on.

"It's mum." Rob managed to choke out.

"No." Carla breathed, this wasn't happening, this couldn't be happening.

"What happened?" Carla asked, she had to know.

Frank placed a hand roun dher shoulder but she shook it off angrily and burst into the front room where her heart stopped beating at what she saw. Her mum was lying totally still on the sofa while a paramedic was attempting to was giving her CPR.

Another paramedic attempted to make Carla leave the room but she refused, she just stood there and watched as the paramedic shook his head and stood up. Carla swore the whole street could hear her heart splinter into thousands of tiny pieces.

She left the room in a trance like state, why had this happened, why? She knew that her mum never really cared for her but still, she was her mum and she loved her, and now she was gone, she was never going to see her again.

Carla looked at the unreadable expressions on Frank and Rob's faces before running up to her bedroom, slamming the door and collapsing down onto her bed.

How could this be happening? She felt bile rise up in her throat and made a rush to the bathroom. While she was sitting over the toilet bowl she heard Frank enter the bathroom behind her and close the door. Carla felt her body tense up, he wouldn't, not know, not after her mum had just died, would he?

To Carla's relief Frank just sat on the edge of the bath and said, "The doctor's said she had a heart attack caused by too much drink and drugs most likely."

Carla just nodded as she felt a tear slip down her cheek, she couldn't believe it. Her mum was gone...

**Please review thanks :) :P**


	11. Bad dreams

**So sorry for not updating but my stupid laptop decided to go and break and I now have to share with my brother, sooo, yeah...**

**Thanks for the reviews and I hope you enjoy this chapter :) :P**

Bad dreams

Carla didn't get much sleep that much, and what sleep she did get was plagued with nightmares, they were horrible, and the trouble was that she could remember them, even though she was now awake.

She was a kid again, 9 years old, before Frank had turned up, before any of this had happened. She was happy, her mum and Rob were smiling around her, she was about to walk over to them when a huge arm grabbed her from behind, she tried to scream but no sound came out. Her mum and Rob were disappearing, turning into nothing and she was crying, the arm spun her round and she was face to face with Frank, his evil, sadistic smirk scaring her so much.

And then she had woke up, covered in sweat and tears rolling down her face. Carla still couldn't get her head round it, her mum, was dead, she would never see her again, would never have an argument again, or anything.

Now all she had left was Rob, and Frank. Carla shuddered, now her mum was gone it would be her and Frank alone in the house most of the time, Rob hardly ever spent any time at home.

Carla wiped away the tears rolling down her face and rolled over, trying to get a little more comfy. Even though her mum was pretty much worthless her whole life, she was one person Carla had always counted on being there, now she wasn't well, she didn't know what was going to happen.

She closed her eyes in a feeble attempt to get back to sleep, even though she knew that if somehow she did manage to drift off, she would be once again awoken by the dream.

* * *

Frank hadn't slept much that night either, but his reasons for staying awake were nothing like Carla's. He was too happy to go to sleep, and too proud, his plan had worked.

The thing was, he had never gone with Sharon because he loved her, who could love that whining addict? He had gone with her all because of her daughter. The first time he had seen her he had been captivated by her and he had known straight away that he wanted her.

He knew that the only way to get to Carla was through Sharon, so that's exactly what he did. But now, well, he had no use for her, and he was sure she was starting to suspect something, he needed to get rid of her, so that's exactly what he did.

He stuck a load of drugs into her beer and watched her drink it. An hour later, when he was sure she was dead, he had phoned the ambulance, and Carla, and Rob and had acted as shocked and upset as them when they had announced Sharon dead.

Frank was suddenly overcome with a sudden urge to see Carla's sleeping form. With a light smile placed on his lips he quietly made his way into her bedroom. His smile grew wider as he watched her sleeping form take in sharp, shallow breaths. She was perfect, she was his.

* * *

Carla left her house very early the next morning, she couldn't bare to be stuck in there with all it's memories. Frank and Rob were both still asleep when she had snuck out of the house, it was better that way, they wouldn't ask questions and try to make her stay at home.

Carla wasn't really sure where she was going, but she just needed to get away from the house. The morning was deadly silent except for the rustling of leaves and bushes.

Soon Carla found herself at the park, sitting at a bench that overlooked the river. When she was younger, her mum would take her for long walks by the river, and they would feed the ducks and generally have a nice time, but that was a long time ago, a very long time ago. It felt like a world away from what was happening in her life today.

Back then she had been young and carefree, she had no worries, no enemies, no knowledge of the real world. She scrunched her eyes shut tight and wished so hard that she could be young again, but obviously, when she opened them she was still an unhappy, 15 year old girl.

Carla didn't really notice the fact she was crying until she heard a voice yell "Carla!"

It was Paul, she didn't really think she could deal with him right now, sometimes his obvious crush on her was funny but today, well, she was already annoyed at him and he hadn't really started talking yet.

Carla wiped away the tears and turned away from him, hoping that he would get the message that she didn't want to talk. Unfortunately, being Paul, he didn't and plonked himself down uncomfortably close to her.

"Hey," He said in an irritatingly happy voice, "You're out early, our Chelle's still in bed so if you're waiting for he-"

"I'm not!" Carla snapped, she just didn't want to hear his voice anymore, couldn't he just leave her alone?

"All right, someone's a little bit moody today!" Paul tried to make a joke but it wasn't funny, at all.

Carla just ignored him and twisted her body away from him.

"Hey, are you all right?" Paul grabbed Carla's arm, causing her to flinch and twisted her round so she was facing him again, "Have you been crying?"

"Let go." Carla sighed after what seemed like an eternity of Paul staring at her.

Paul obliged, dropping his hand down to his side, "Car, what's wrong?" He asked again, worry in his voice and expression.

Carla bit her lip in an attempt to stop the tears she could feel starting to form in her eyes.

"Car?" Paul asked again, looking into her eyes.

Carla couldn't hold the tears in anymore and let one fall out of her eye, "It's my mum." She shakily said.

"What's she done now?" Paul asked, anger creeping into his voice. He had always hated the way that Sharon had treated Carla, she deserved better.

"She's dead." Carla managed to choke out asd more tears fell from her eyes and down her face.

"Oh my god Car, I'm so sorry." Paul's expression was one of genuine shock, he couldn't imagine what Carla must be going through, "When?"

"Yesterday, Frank called me and-and I came home and, all of the doctors and paramedics- she was just so still, and cold, a dead." Carla sobbed, burying her head into Paul's chest.

Paul carefully closed his arms around her back, he felt so sorry for her, he couldn't imagine ever losing his mum, it would probably kill him. All he could do was hold her in his arms and hope that it somehow comforted her.

She usually seemed so strong, but as he held her, he realised that, like any other person, she could need help as well.

**Please review thanks :) :P**


	12. I promise

**Sooooo, sorry again for not updating but...anyways...yeah...**

**Cherry pip...I know I said that I would updated on Friday but I haven't had the chance until now...**

**Anyways...thanks for the reviews and I hope you enjoy this chapter...**

I promise

Carla was sat in the classroom before anyone else that morning. She had refused Paul's request to go to his house, but she knew that he would've told everyone, well, his whole family anyway.

She couldn't belive thats he had actually broken down infront of Paul, it was so embarrasing, she never cried infront of anyone...ever! She alwyas cried on her own, when no one could hear, or see, or know.

Mr Barlow wasn't even in the room yet. God, Mr Barlow, Michelle, her mum, everything was happening right now and she could do nothing to stop it. What was happening to her? She used to be in control...but now, she was...powerless.

Half of her wanted to cry again but she didn't have any tears left, she knew she was sad but...it was like there was no feeling inside her anymore, she was empty.

* * *

As Peter wasn't going into school that day, he was going to stay home and look after Susan, he had got the rest of the week off, knowing that the first few days were always the hardest to get through.

Susan hadn't emerged from her bedroom yet, and he was using the time to think, he had read up on some of the side effects of going cold turkey, and sometimes it could be alright, other times they could get really bad.

It depended on the person and how long they had been on the thing, what thing it actually was, there were so many factors that changed everything so Peter couldn't tell exactly what would happen to Susan, but he knew it was going to be hard, that was a definite.

Peter snapped his head up as Susan came out of her bedroom, she had massive black bags underneath her eyes and her hair was all over the place. It looked she had hardly any sleep.

"Are you okay?" Peter asked as Suan collapsed onto the sofa next to him.

"Shouldn't you be at work?" Susan asked, ignoring Peter's question.

"I've booked the rest of the week off, I'm not leaving on your own." Peter explained.

"Peter!" Susan exclaimed, "You've worked there for two days, you can't go missing days already!"

"I can and I have." Peter sighed, crossing his arms as if he was challenging his sister.

Susan decided to change the subject by asking "Are you going to see dad later?"

Peter had hoped that Susan would have somehow forgotten that part of the conversation. "Well, you see, I-"

"Call him now." Susan interrupted her brother.

Peter reluctantly pulled his phone out of his pocket and scrolled doen his contacts until he found his dads number. With a sigh he clicked the call button and lifted it up to his ear.

_"Hello, this is Ken Barlow, I am unable to take your call at the moment, please leave a message and I will call you when I get it, thank you."_

Peter ended the call and chucked the phone down. "It went straight to voice mail." He told his sister.

"Why didn't you leave a message?" Susan questioned.

"He'll ring me back as soon as he see's it was me who phoned him, you know he will, I don't need to leave a message." Peter pointed out.

Susan just stood up and made her way back towards the bathroom, "I'm going to have a shower, tell me if dad calls you." Susan told Peter.

"I promise." Peter replied with a sigh. He hated his dad, Susan knew that, he couldn't understand why she didn't either, after what he'd done.

* * *

Carla looked up as the classroom door flew open and Mrs Gilroy walked into the room, placing her bag onto the desk.

"Carla Donavon, early for a change, why are you here?" Mrs Gilroy asked.

Carla didn't answer, she wasn't sure what would come out when she opened her mouth.

"Not answering a teacher, that could be seen as defiance and you know you get a detention for that." Mrs Gilroy was obviously revelling at winding Carla up, it was obvious by the tone in her voice.

"Please miss, just not today." Carla sighed, she didn't think she had the strength in her to argue.

Mrs Gilroy didn't say a word, probably because Michelle walked into the room, caught sight of Carla and enveloped her in a massive hug. "I'm so sorry." Michelle breathed into her ear. Carla could tell that she was apologising about yesterday as well as about her mum. Carla returned the hug thankfully.

"Are you sure you should be in school?" Michelle questioned as she sat down next to Carla.

"Yeah," Carla replied, "I can't stay at home, too many memories, they hurt." She admitted.

"It'll be all right," Michelle comforted, "Eventually."

"Maybe." Carla sighed.

The two friends sat in uncomfortable slience but when Mrs Gilroy left the room Carla spoke again.

"I'm not the only one with a problem here though." She said, signalling to Michelle's still flat stomach.

"I've already told you what I'm doing." Michelle answered sharply.

"But you've got to tell Dean." Carla pointed out.

"No I don't, I've already told you, he won't want it!" Michelle sighed.

"But you don't know that." Carla argued, "You're not a mind reader!"

"I can't tell him Car, I just can't, he'll hate me." Michelle said, obviously on the verge of tears.

"No he won't, look, we'll tell him together, tonight." Carla said, almost like an order.

"But-" Michelle started to protest until Carla cut her off.

"No! We are going to find him after school and we are going to tell him, understand?" Carla said.

"Okay." Michelle sighed, "I'll tell him later, I promise."

**Please review, thanks :) :P**


	13. Shocked

**Thanks for the reviews, sorry again for not updating, the last few weeks have been chaos and I'm going away for a week on Sunday so I'm not sure when the next update will be :(  
ANYWAYS  
My twitter is Laura_B_7 and I hope you enjoy this chapter :)**

Shocked

Michelle had been pretty quiet that day, Carla knew it was because she was thinking about Dean and what he would say. When she had met him Dean seemed like quite a nice guy, she was sure he would help Michelle if she just talked to him.

Carla had been quite quiet as well for that matter. But that was obviously becasue of her mum, none of the teachers knew that though. They probably thought she was just being defiant, lazy or anything really, they had no idea what had happened to her mum. Her mum, Carla angrily blinked away the tears that were threatening to fall from her eyes, there was no way she was going to cry in front of anyone, even if it was one of the nicest teachers in the school running detentions today.

Rob wasn't here, so that probably meant he had stayed at home. Rob would use any excuse to get a day off school, knowing him he would probably manage to get the rest of the week off. Carla had completely zoned out and she hardly heard the bell ring. She could see everyone moving through the corridors but she didn't get up. Suddenly Michelle was at the door, pulling her out of her thoughts and taking her to form.

* * *

Peter watched Susan intently, she was cleaning, scrubbing and washing everything in the flat. First she had just done the washing up, making sure every bit of her cutlery, plates, bowls and everything really. They were spotless by the time she finished with them. Then she had moved onto the cupboards, cleaning them out and washing them thoroughly. Then she had moved onto every surface in the kitchen, scrubbing them with such force Peter thought she was going to wear them down to nothing. Now she had just started cleaning the windows, scrubbing the grimy muck off them opening them to let some much needed fresh air into the flat to rid it of the smell of different cleaning products.

Susan had always cleaned when she was stressed or worried, ever since she was little. When their parents had to have a meeting with one of Susan's teachers she had cleaned out her whole bedroom and rearranged everything because she thought for some reason she was in trouble. Obviously she wasn't and the teachers had just wanted to talk to their parents about how amazing her work was.

In high school that changed though, when mum got ill and Susan went seriously off the rails, any calls from school were about bad behaviour, bunking and homework, she just stopped working. That had been when she started the drugs, in year 10, when mum was lying in hospital. Susan just couldn't cope, so she turned to other things to help take away the pain. It had been horrible, to watch his sister slip away from him and being able to do nothing about it.

Susan collapsed down on the sofa next to him, chucking her rubber gloves onto the spotless table in front of them, "This is better, I haven't given the place a proper clean in months." Susan sighed.

Peter didn't say anything, just studied her face, she looked pretty much normal, albeit a bit pale and shakey, but nothing major, yet, it had been over 15 hours since she last had anything and he could tell she was struggling, even though she was obviously trying to show her he was fine. But one thing Peter wasn't was stupid.

The two of them sat in comfortable silence until the ringing of Peter's mobile pierced the atmosphere of the silent flat. Peter let out a sigh when he saw who it was. Susan stared at him as he picked the phone up and said, "Hello dad."

* * *

The final bell rang and Carla was the first out of the classroom with Michelle. They were going to meet Dean at his house, his parents didn't get home till about 7 so they would have a lot of time to think about things. Carla had left her phone at home in her rush to get out of the house that morning so she had no idea if anyone had tried to contact her, more importantly if Frank had tried to contact her.

Carla shivered at the thought of him, she knew that Frank wouldn't hold back because her mother had just died, he wasn't that kind of person, unfortunately. Dean lived in a pretty nice house. It wasn't as big as Michelle's but it was massive compared to Carla's house.

"You ready?" Carla questioned as they walked towards his front door.

"As I'll ever be." Michelle sighed as she reached out her hand and rang the doorbell.

Carla squeezed Michelle's hand as they heard Dean walking towards the door, giving Michelle some much needed ressurance.

"Hey babe, how was your-" Dean opened the door but stopped talking with a look of confusion on his face when he saw Carla standing with a rather scared looking Michelle.

"Hey." Michelle said, staring at the ground, unable to look Dean in the eye.

"Babe are you all right?" Dean questioned, studying Michelle's face, which had turned quite pale.

"No, not really." Michelle said, still finding herself unable to look Dean in the eye in the fear that she would burst into tears."I need to tell you something.

"What?" Dean asked, he was getting quite worried about his girlfriend now, she was usually the happiest person ever, but today, she definitely was not.

"Let's go inside." Carla said, stepping into the door and pulling Michelle with her, who seemed to have lost all control of her limbs, and could only stand in one position like a statue.

Dean closed the door behind them and lead them into the lounge, which was all cream walls and cream furniture, it looked quite posh. Carla sat Michelle, who was still looking at the floor, on one of the sofas and settled down next to her.

"So, what do you need to tell me?" Dean questioned, looking from Carla to Michelle as he waited for one of them to start talking.

Carla nudged Michelle, who finally looked up with tears glistening in her hazel eyes. "You'll hate me." She finally managed to stutter.

Dean crouched down in front of Michelle and held her hands in his own, "I could never hate you babe, just tell me what's happened, and I can help." He said, sincerity clear in his voice as he looked straight into Michelle's eyes.

"I-I-" Michelle couldn't seem to get the words out of her mouth, she looked at Carla who just nodded, telling her to go on.

Michelle took a final deep breath, looked straight into Dean's blue eyes and said, "I'm pregnant."

"What?" Dean looked like he'd been slapped in the face, "Babe, are you sure?"

Michelle just nodded as a tear spilled out of her eye.

"But-but, we were careful, we were always careful." Carla could see the shock and confusion in Dean's face.

Michelle jsut shrugged, "Well, it's gotta be your's, it can't be anyone elses."

"I never said it wasn't mine babe, it's just, wow, this, it's a bit hard to digest." Dean stood up and started pacing around the room. After about 5 minutes of continuous pacing Dean crouched down in front of Michelle again.

"It'll be all right babe, I promise." He kissed her softly on the lips before asking, "What do you want to do?"

"I don't know." Michelle managed to choke out, she had no idea, she thought Dean was going to throw her out or yell at her or something, she hadn't expected this.

"Well it's your choice." Dean said, "I'm not going to pressure you into anything, I promise."

Dean pulled Michelle into a hug before whispering in her ear, "I love you babe."

**Soooo, please review thanks :) :P**


	14. Getting rid of the pain

**Thanks for the reviews :) :P**

**Now, I've got a little suprise for my lovely readers. I know there has been a complete lack of Carter scenes, and there won't be many for a few chapters yet but after that, there will be lots, and lots, and a few more on top of that. BUT, seeing as I am suffering from Carter withdrawal, well, you'll see at the end of this chapter... ;)**

**WARNING: THIS CHAPTER COULD BE OFFENDING/UPSETTING TO SOME PEOPLE AND/OR TRIGGERING TO PEOPLE WHO SUFFER FROM SELF HARM**

Getting rid of the pain

Carla rushed home from Dean's, she knew that Frank would be angry but she had to help Michelle, she was her best mate, best mates help each other when they're in trouble. If Michelle knew what was going on she would help her, Carla knew that, she just couldn't tell her. She was too ashamed. She had let Frank do this to her, she was dirty.

Carla saw Rob sitting on a corner with a bunch of guys, he had a distant look in his eye, and it was obvious he was thinking of mum. She decided against going over to talk to him, she didn't think he would thank her for embarrasing him in front of his mates. The only thing that meant was that she was going to be home alone with Frank.

When Carla finally got home it was half past 5, and she usually got home from school at half past 3. She wasn't sure how Frank was going to react, at least she wasn't drunk this time, he would flip if she was drunk.

She turned her key in the lock and stepped through the grubby door, Frank wasn't waiting for her this time, that was a good sign, wasn't it? She could feel her heartbeat increasing, a natural reaction of worry when she got home late or was expecting to be punished. She was starting to shake as well. She deposited her bag in the hall and took a deep breath in before walking slwoly into the front room.

Frank was stretched out on the sofa, watching some detective show. He slowly turned his head and looked at Carla. "I've been phoning you." He simply said, his snake like eyes roaming all over Carla like she was a piece of meat, to him, that was all she was.

"I," Carla swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat, "I left my phone here, it's in my room."

"Where have you been?" That was Frank's second question, his eyes still going everywhere.

"With Michelle." Carla answered, she just stared at the floor, she couldn't look at Frank, she was too scared.

"Come here." Frank patted the sofa next to him, and looked Carla in the eye. She swallowed again, and slowly made her way to the sofa, sitting as far away from Frank as she could.

"Come a bit closer Carla, or I'm going to have to come to you." Frank's voice had a teasing tone in it, and that made Carla even more scared than she already was. She reluctantly shuffled so she was sitting right next to Frank.

She closed her eyes as she felt his hand sneak round her waist. _No, no, not again, please, not again._ Carla was silently begging in her head, but there was no point.

She held her breath as Frank's hand started to unbutton her school shirt. _No, no, no. _Carla kept repeating the word in her head as Frank undid all hre buttons and pulled the thin, white shirt off, leaving her in her bra.

_Please, stop it. _Frank's hand fingered the thin material of her bra before using his other hand to pull Carla's skirt down, leaving her in only her underwear.

Carla attempted to block out the feeling of Frank's slimy fingers all over her skin, all over her body, all over her, everywhere, Frank was everywhere.

* * *

Carla was lying in her bed. When it was over she had ran up to her room and cried. She had got into her pyjama's and stayed in the same position since. But after laying there for about 5 hours she was starting to feel the need for food and drink.

She climbed off her bed and slipped her dressing gown on. She quietly opened her door and let out the breath she didn't know she was holding as she heard Frank's snoring come from the room down the hall.

She walked downstairs to the kitchen where she had some water and toast, she couldn't face eating anything else. She felt disgusting, dirty, like she always did, but this time she felt 10 times worse.

She needed a shower, she had to have a shower. She needed to get rid of the feeling of Frank all over her body, she had to get rid of him.

She made her way back up the stairs and went to the bathroom and locked the door. She pulled her clothes off and slipped into the shower, turning it on and standing over the constant flow of warm water, hoping it would somehow cleanse her of all thoughts and feelings about Frank.

They wouldn't go away though, they were still there. Carla turned the temperature of the water up, higher and higher and higher until it was scalding. She scrubbed at her skin, everywhere that she could still feel Frank.

Her body was soon bright red but he was still, there. She could still feel him. Why wouldn't he go away? Carla collapsed to the bottom of the shower in a torrent of tears.

She didn't know how long she sat there, burning water cascading over her and tears flowing down her face until she caught sight of the razor. The glint of the sharp piece of metal was strangely attractive.

With a shaking hand she reached out and picked it up. She held her forearm out and slowly slid it across her skin, closing her eyes as she felt the sharp sting of it ripping through her skin.

It hurt, but it felt good, it felt, nice, it took away Frank. So she did it again, another cut, and another, and a few more until there were 7 cuts in a straight line up her wrist.

The blood that flowed from each cut was merging together to make a mess on her arm, but she liked it. She watched as the water washed away the blood, turnign the clear water red as it ran down the plug hole. It looked, beautiful, if that was the right word to describe it. She wasn't sure, but one thing she did know was that she liked it.

It had taken the pain away, the pain from her mother's death and from Frank, it didn't hurt anymore, she didn't know why but it didn't, and she had needed to get rid of the pain.

Carla pulled herself up and finally turned the shower off and wrapped herself in a towell. When she was dry she pulled her pyjama's back on, and without hesitation, picked up the razor and took it with her back to her bedroom, it would probably come in useful again.

**So...now for my Carter suprise. I needed to write something Carter so this is it. It's just a sneak preview for something coming up in a few chapters time, hope you like it...**

Carla ran through the streets, tears streaming down her face, she didn't know where she was going, she just needed to get away. How could Helen have said that? Carla knew she didn't like her but, she didn't realise she was that heartless.

And Paul. Paul! He could see she was upset, and he had done that! She just couldn't believe him.

Suddenly Carla ran straight into a muscly figure. She looked up to see Mr Barlow standing there with a confused expression on his face. "Carla, what's wrong?" Peter hated seeing her this upset, he felt so protective of the teenager and he just didn't know why.

Carla looked into Mr Barlow's kind eyes before throwing herself into his chest, sobbing uncontrollably as he wrapped his arms around her.

"Come on, lets get you home." He said softly.

"No!" Carla looked at Peter with a look that was so, scared. Why was she scared? He wasn't sure but he would bet his life on it being something to do with Frank.

"Ok," Peter wasn't sure what to do with the teen, he couldn't just leave her here, "Ok, you can come back to mine for a bit, just to get yourself sorted out."

**Soooo, hope you like it, please review :) :P**


	15. Prized possessions

**Ok, so being back at school mixed with a horrible amount of homework, going places, trips and all this stuff has made it really hard for me this past week, but here is the next chapter... hope you enjoy it...**

Prized possessions

When Carla woke up the next day the first thing she did was glance at her arms, the cuts were starting to heal slightly, which was good, she guessed.

She shivered as she remembered the razor that was stashed away in a box under her bed. It was strange, that box had her most prized possessions in. The gold necklace that used to belong to her Grandma, a photo of her, her mum and Rob when they were younger, when they were happy. About £50 that she had managed to save up over the course of a year, the bracelet Michelle had given her for her 15th birthday, and now, a razor as well.

She looked at the time, it was half 7, reluctantly she rolled over and started to get dressed, wanting to get it over with before Frank woke up. She pulled her school uniform on, pulled her hair up into a high ponytail and applied her make up.

When she was done she looked at her reflection in the grubby mirror. She looked like any other teenage girl going to school, shortish skirt, low tie, top button undone, tons of make up pasted on her face, but she wasn't like any other teenage girl.

She had Frank for starters, no one else had him and all the pain he inflicted on her. She had next to no money, she lived in a house full of drugs, and she was a freak. She was one of those freaks that cut herself, but it made her feel so much better.

She rolled her sleeve up to study the healing cuts again, they looked strange on her skin, she was still trying to work out why they made her feel so good, but they did, and she couldn't change that. It was half 8 by now and if she didn't leave now she was going to be late, not that it bothered her but she could do without all stress today.

She pulled her sleeve down, grabbed her bag and made her way out into the dirty street, and towards school.

* * *

Peter, on the other hand, woke up to the sound of Susan retching in the bathroom. He pulled himself out of bed and walked out into the hallway. All sounds from the bathroom had ceased do he slowly knocked on the door.

"Susan, are you all right?" He asked softly as he heard his sister let out a pained moan.

"Do I bloody well sound all right?" Susan snapped. She hated it when people asked stupid questions, was there really any point?

"Do you want anything?" Peter asked next, Susan wasn't usually very moody,even in her teenage years, with him anyway. She could hurl all kinds of abuse at her dad, which he did deserve, and yell at teachers all she wanted but she was always calm around him.

When they were younger their mum had told them that they had this twin connection thing, apparently one day, when they were about 3, Peter had run off in a park and got lost, and Susan had led her parents straight to where he was standing, even though it was about 20 minutes away and the journey consisted of lots of different twists and turns. It had always sounded like a bit of a fairytale.

They had always been close, really close, even when Susan was pushing away everyone that cared about her, she never got angry at him, ever. That's why he had been taken aback by Susan's bitter tone, not because he hadn't heard it before but because she had never directed it at him.

"You know exactly what I want!" Susan eventually replied in an equally as bitter tone. She was sweating and shaking uncontrollably, she needed the drugs, she couldn't go on like this. It had started in the middle of the night and she hadn't gto a wink of sleep, and this sickness! She felt like it would never stop, she couldn't move from beside the toilet in case she felt another wave of vomit rise up her throat.

Peter decided to carefully open the bathroom door and what he saw shocked him to the core. Susan was curled up next to the toilet, her skin a ghostly white and she was shaking.

Peter knelt down next to her and felt her skin, she was freezing! He quickly raced into her bedroom and picked up a heap of blankets that were folded up in the corner.

He rushed back to he bathroom to see Susan with her head back in the toilet. When she was done he placed the blankets around her shoulders in an attempt to warm her up a bit.

He knew Carla said it was going to be hard, but he had never been expecting it to get this bad, it was horrible. He hated seeing Susan like this, he had to help her get better, somehow he would.

Oh, and to top it all off he had to go to his dads house tomorrow, like he had promised Susan he would, and even though he really didn't want to go, Peter never broke his promises.

* * *

Michelle was waiting for Carla at the school gates with a smile on her face. Dean had been amazing yesterday, and after Carla had left they had talked everything through and Dean had thoroughly suprised her when he said he wanted the baby!. But he would support her in whatever she wanted to do. But now she had no idea what she wanted to do, well, she did, but it would involve a lot of stress and shouting, and it wouldn't be pretty. She wanted to keep the baby, but that would mean telling her family.

She looked down at her stomach, to think that there was a baby growing inside of it was amazing, and scary, definitely scary, but a real baby! It was just this absolutely wonderful feeling that she couldn't really explain.

Carla did not have a smile on her face though, not that it was unusual, but all she could think about were the cuts on her arm, and the fact that she couldn't tell anyone at all.

Carla didn't even speak to Michelle as they started walking up the path towards the school building, she was just too wrapped up in her head. Carla spoke as little as possible for the whole morning, until break anyway, it was then she finally started a conversation with Michelle.

"So, Dean reacted better than you expected then!" Carla forced a smile onto her lips that she knew Michelle wouldn't believe but she had to make an effort.

"Yeah." Michelle replied with a dreamy look in her eyes.

"So, what are you gonna do with it now?" That questioned pulled Michelle right down to earth and the dreamy expression dropped right off her face.

"I think, well, I want to keep it." Michelle replied.

"But that means-" Carla started before Michelle interrupted her.

"I know what that means!" Carla was pointing out the obvious here, something Michelle didn't exactly like.

"But your mum'll-" Carla had been on the recieveing end of Helen Connor's sharp and often cruel tongue many times before.

"I know exactly what my mum will do!" Michelle had never really given her mum much reason to get upset but this, well, she knew that her mum was not going to like it one bit.

"But Paul and Liam will-" Carla had seen Paul and Liam hurt people that hurt their little sister, and this was just going to be off the scale!

"I know exactly what Paul and Liam will do!" Michelle hated the fact that her family were so protective and annoying, she was thankful that she had a family, and she loved them all but they didn't seem to understand that she could make her own choices.

"I recommend keeping Dean well away for a while." Carla finally spoke very seriously after a few minutes of silence.

"Yeah, that's exactly what I told him..." Michelle trailed off as a fight on the other side of the field caught her eye.

Carla just sighed in pure annoyance. "Rob." She muttered under her breath before jumpign up and making her way to the scuffling boys, ready to sort her brother out properly.

**So, hope you liked it, please review :) :P **


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